Sustainably-designed and featuring over 40,000 linear feet of wall, roof, and canopy that is covered in panels from Metal Sales Manufacturing Corporation, the country’s largest planned net zero energy community is UC Davis West Village, a 205-acre project that will be home to 662 apartments and 343 single-family homes, along with commercial and recreational facilities.

Team ASUNM, a collaborative effort between Arizona State University and University of New Mexico, has come together to address the inefficiencies of urban sprawl and to create a model for sustainable desert living that has been dubbed SHADE (Solar Home Adapting for Desert Equilibrium), which is an entry in the Solar Decathlon 2013 competition that takes place on October 3-13, 2013 in Irvine, California.

Last month, we posted an article about how to use interior sliding glass doors to increase home energy efficiencies in which we talked about how glass can add LEED points:

Glass doors can contribute to achieving U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ratings. Use of glass can add LEED points for reductions in lighting power density. Using glass, especially if it is made of recycled and recyclable materials, instead of drywall is a good, sustainable, and eco-friendly choice and will promote better indoor air quality by reducing the use of emitting materials such as adhesives and sealants. In new construction or renovations, smaller living spaces can be designed by reducing the access space that is required by traditional doors.

The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota has set a goal of building 100 energy-efficient homes during the next five years in an effort to revitalize neighborhoods in the northern region of the city that have been suffering the most during the economic downturn. Homes will be built on vacant, city-owned lots and will be priced between $150,000 and $200,000. Energy efficient and designed to complement surrounding structures, it is expected that the new homes will contribute to increases in property values, along with owner confidence.

The Seattle-based home building company, ShelterKraft Werks, designs affordable homes that are configured around recycled shipping containers to provide solutions for global housing challenges with turn-key, low footprint structures that can be installed within any conceivable environment.

Lightwall Pavilion, the winning submission to the 2012 ReSpace Design Competition, was designed by Abe Drechsler and Scott Hefner, architecture students at North Carolina State University. The multi-purpose structure is 213 square feet and is constructed of reclaimed wood from various sources and glass bottles obtained from restaurants and bars in downtown Raleigh.